Meaning of cable analysis test results

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
My Dell computer (desktop) is using a Broadcom NetXtreme 57XX gigabit controlller.

There is some diagnostic software that is installed on the computer for testing this card.

When I run the "CABLE ANALYSIS" part of the testing software, the result comes back as:

The cable has broken pair(s) or is not CAT 5

What does the result mean ? Does this mean that the cabling that is hooked from the back of the NIC to the wall jack is possibly defective or that the cabling from the wall socket to our server is defective ?

I looked at the cabling from the NIC to the wall socket and it is CAT 5E. Is the fact that the cable is strictly speaking not CAT 5, causing this error to be displayed ?

Thanks.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
I believe I have found the cause of the problem.

I had my ethernet cabling being routed thru my UPS/battery backup/surge protector.

As soon as I took the UPS out of the loop the test ran O.K.

So does that mean that routing the ethernet cabling thru the UPS is a bad thing ?

Thanks.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,200
126
So does that mean that routing the ethernet cabling thru the UPS is a bad thing ?

Thanks.

Probably. I have a friend that had issues with his cable television signal not coming in good for some of the higher channels, and it turned out that he had routed the connection through one of his expensive surge protectors, and it was attenuating the higher frequency signals coming in from the pole. Once he took that out of the loop, he was fine.